It's been about six months since I drove over to eastern Idaho to pickup and install the CBI Outback 1.0 rear bumper with dual swing-outs on my way down to The Maze in Utah. In that time, the bumper has performed well - I'm generally really happy with it, save a couple niggly things that I should probably write up as a "what do I think six months later," sort of post. But, one thing that I've been missing - and knew I was missing when I purchased the bumper - was a fold-down table on the swing-out. This was…
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If there's one thing I've learned when it comes to first gen Toyota Tacoma's, it's that the weak point of the design (well, excluding rusty frames) is the lower ball joint (LBJ) on the front suspension. The design of the joint makes it susceptible to failure, and that failure is often catastrophic if you're traveling at any kind of speed. And sometimes, even if you're not. So, over the last year as I've been pushing the truck harder, I've been keeping an eye on my LBJ's - they're the originals after all, nearly 20 years old, and with 95,000 miles…
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TL;DR - conceptually the fold-down-and-out table is cool but I need to rework how the far corner is supported for it to be useful. Oh, and it can't have any wooden components, since they swell up in wet weather.
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Well, the good news is that we were successful. It may have taken 14 hours, but the Dan's (@drr and I) were triumphant in our first attempt at a timing belt self-service to each of our 5VZFE's. But oh, how we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's back up say... six months. Just for a moment. Back in January, I was sure that I was going to have Toyota do my 90K mile service at the end of the summer, after this year's trips were in the books. I knew I'd be a little over 90K, but I figured it was…
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May 12, 2018. We all know how it goes - the list of things to do to the truck is so long that we have to prioritize. And often, that prioritization favors form over function. And from time to time, I've been as guilty of that as the next guy, for sure. But not this time. This time, I knew that I needed the function with the form, lest I do irreparable damage to the Tacoma. So, when I installed the dual swingout CBI rear bumper in January, I purchased a set of frame reinforcement plates at the same time from @cbi offroad…
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It wasn't long ago that Dan (@drr), Mike (@Digiratus), Zane (@Speedytech7) and I got together at Dan's shop to do some work on Mike's steering rack and LCA's. That didn't go exactly as planned, but we all had a great time and when we hear Zane was going to be in town again, we knew right away that we should get together again - even if just to hang out. Of course, we all had a few little things we wanted to do to our trucks (isn't that always the case?) so we decided to meet up at Mike's this…
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April 23, 2018. A 2000 Toyota Tacoma only comes with so many safety features. Built two decades ago, there was no traction control; no forward, backward and side cameras; no blind spot radar; and definitely no Toyota Safety Sense™. These were the days of kids riding in pickup beds for fun, seat belt warning chimes that buzzed twice and shut the hell up since they realized that if you were going to wear the belt, you'd have put it on already, and ABS-as-an-option. These were the days before SMS; before we needed our cars to protect us from ourselves. Of…
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I was ready for adventure - running solo, I was returning to Death Valley, having only just wet my appetite on our first trip back in January. With 2500 miles to go, I knew I had a lot of driving ahead - but I was ready - or so I thought - when, less than 50 miles in, the Check Engine Light (CEL) came on. I've covered the details of the first hours of diagnosis in my Back to Death Valley trip report, so if you haven't read that (and are interested), I'd recommend starting there. The plan here is…
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April 2, 2018. A while back, I somehow stumbled on @jberry813's post where he installed a garage door opener in his headliner (Homelink in a 1st gen) near the map lights. Having the same issues - a garage door remote that floats around in the center console; @mrs.turbodb's car that has it built into the sun visors) - I decided that this was something I needed to do right away. That was a little over a year ago. Rightly, other mods took priority - and I'm glad they did. See, I never should have done this mod, but most other…
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Our trip to The Maze was awesome. However, you may recall that near the end, we hit a whoops a little fast, which led to me peering under the truck a few times on the way home to try and determine what the god-awful shake was that we were feeling in the accelerator, seats, and - after 15 hours on the road - our bones. I wasn't able to figure it out on the drive home, but the next day I spent some more time under the truck and noticed two things: The rear diff pinion seal had started leaking…
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March 24, 2018. "I feel sorry for anyone who needs a cam bolt sleeve in the Seattle area this weekend." said Mike @Digiratus as he and Zane @Speedytech7 walked in the door a little after 4:30pm. See, they'd just driven a 50-mile loop to get every last one they could find - since we were in the process of destroying all four of Mike's. But we are way ahead of ourselves. For several months, Dan @drr and Mike have been planning a shop day. Mike wanted to install a new set of W53377A Whiteline LCA bushings as well as a new steering rack…
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March 14-15, 2018. There is perhaps nothing that changes the look of a truck more than adding a swing-out rear bumper. Sure, you can argue for bigger tires or lift or a front bumper, but in my mind, none of those things compare to the entirely new footprint that a rear-swing-out brings, what with the spare tire and jerry can mounts that add two additional feet to the length of your truck. But as usual, I'm jumping into the middle of the story. Let's back up a bit. Since starting to really build out the truck for adventuring, I've known that…
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With summer fast approaching, I decided that it'd be a good time to take a look at the skids - so I could clean up any rust, and repaint them for the season. I'm not sure how necessary that is - I mean, at 3/16" thick, these @relentlessfab plates would take quite a while for rust to destroy - but it's an easy process, so why not. Removal was straight forward though a bit unwieldy, and I was happy to find that my re-welded anchors were holding up well. I was also happy to see that my skids had saved…
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I've never been a car guy. I can tell you all about the details of construction and woodworking - how the various bits of a house work, how to precision tune a saw or plane. But when I looked down and saw two flaking, worn bushings that were connected to "some bar" and my lower control arms, I wondered, "What the heck is that, and how screwed am I?" As it turns out, that was my stabilizer bar, and I wasn't really all that screwed at all. But I'm getting ahead of myself. See, the first thing I did was consult…
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February 26, 2018. I always dread cleaning the bed of the truck. I don't mean sweeping or washing out the bed liner - I mean, I don't like that either - but the part I really dread is removing the bed liner and cleaning underneath it. There are a couple reasons for this: first, it's hard to get the liner out; it's really wedged in there (which is good the rest of the time). Second, I always worry (rightly, I think) that when I take out the bed liner, I'm going to see how it's destroyed my bed - rubbing off…
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February 21, 2018. Not all that long ago, the truck got a gear change - from the 4.10 factory gears to 4.88's - meaning that it's now easier on the engine to turn the bigger tires as it climbs up hills, over rocks, and generally towards adventure. Within a couple weeks of the gear change, I'd driven far enough to get 500 miles of break-in complete on the rear diff and changed the oil - and everything there seemed A-OK, which was nice. And then on our trip to Death Valley, we ran as much as we could in 4WD…
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February 21, 2018. How many miles do you have on your truck? If you're anything like me, you'll answer this by looking at your odometer, reading a number, and concluding that you have that many miles - 83,078 miles in my case. Like me, you're wrong. Your odometer is lying to you. And so is your speedometer. I covered why that is here - go read it. I'll wait. Speedometers, Odometers, and Gas Mileage – All Lies! OK, welcome back. Or not if you're like me and just skipped over that last link. Let me try to recap: The reading…
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February 21, 2018. I've had a rattle for a little over four months. I first heard it (I think), when returning from The De-Tour at the beginning of October, or else maybe a week or so after that. It sounded like a loose heat shield, or other piece of sheet metal, rattling away under the back half of the truck. But I knew it wasn't a heat shield - it only happened at speeds above about 15-20mph, and changed when under load (vs. coasting) and there were certain throttle/speed/terrain combinations where I could almost get it to go away. Of…
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February 13, 2018. Ever since installing the bed rack and CVT the truck has been in "adventure mode." I don't mind that so much when I'm just driving around (though - it'd be nice to not haul around the extra weight all the time), but it does make me nervous to park it unattended/unsecured overnight. As such, I've been trying to come up with a plan to remove the rack and RTT (ideally at the same time), and store them. In our barely-1-car garage. At any rate, I knew the solution was going to involve either a winch or pullies…
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It's not uncommon to be asked the question: I'm about to upgrade my rear suspension. Should I get an AAL (add-a-leaf) or a whole new (possibly custom) leaf pack? Since there's never an easy answer, here's what I'd say... it depends. Actually, there are two easy answers: If your existing leaf pack is in reasonable shape and you're not regularly hauling heavy loads (several hundred pounds) in the back of your truck, go with the AAL. It'll give you a lifted look, will work fine for the occasional load, and will be the most economical option. If your existing (probably stock/original)…
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